Iron Will HEMA Academy

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Day one! ☝😁

Last Wednesday (6 May) we organized an in-club mini-tournament. As you know, our yearly international HEMA event is coming up [Ace of Blades III (2026) - https://fb.me/e/6hux2uo8E ]

So, the reasons for organizing the mini-tournament were three-fold:
1. to test the new Score Keeping software that we'll be using for this edition of the event.
2. to give our club members (both those participating in the event and those who aren't) a chance to test get into competition mode a bit before the event
3. because it's just plain fun to fight in a tournament every now and then. :)

We had 12 participants in total, arranged into 3 Pools of 4 fencers each (so, 3 matches per fencer in the Pools), followed by a Round of 8, Semifinals and Finals (so, 6 matches in total for those that fought in the Finals).

In this mini-tournament some Instructors participated alongside their Students. Because we believe it's very useful to allow Students to face their Instructors in competitive mode as well, not only as the loving, caring and supporting beast.... uuummmm... bastar.... ummmm... bonhommes that they are when they're in their pedagogical mode, at class.

BUT, since we also believe in as much fairness as possible, we have this ancient rule, since the club's founding that if we hold any sort of competition in the club (be it a one-off tournament or the long-time "on pause" yearlong IWHA Cup), the Instructors are NOT allowed to win any medals or prizes.

They are just there to provide a challenge for the Students (and to themselves, to keep in shape! if they taught their Students well!). But if any of the Instructors ends up on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd place, any medal or prize cascades down to the next best place participant that isn't an Instructor.

So, in this context, we are extremely happy to announce that the top 4 placed fencers in the tournament were:

1st place => Andrei Chirlesan
2nd place => Tullus Ştefan
3rd place => Dobre Vlad
4th place => Vlad Laurențiu Bercea
5th place => Podaru

But since Andrei Chirlesan and Dobre Vlad are Instructors, the prizes cascaded down to our awesome Students:
- Tullus Ştefan
- Vlad Laurențiu Bercea
- Stefan Podaru

We congratulate the winners on their hard work and skill (and stamina!).

But more importantly, we congratulate ALL of our Students, that registered. And either increased their tournament XP or gained some for the first time.

Last but definitely not least, we deeply thank our hard-working Score Keepers:
- TC TC (or score keeping software alpha tester and overall wiz and a club Admin)
- Alina Cristiana Georgescu (not only a Score Keeper, but also the Score Keeper Manager and a club Admin)
- Andrei L. Belu
- Alatriste Altriste
- Done Maria
- Dumitru Mihnea
- Pavel Chelaru
- Stefania Nistor

It was so fun that we might decide to do more of these in the future, once every 3 to 6 months. We shall see.

Until then, we leave you with some pics (courtesy of one of our club's Heralds - Petru) of the tournament stats, all the participants, and the winners, with their to-die-for prizes: joke books and sweets! Everything a growing fencer needs (

Our club is once again organizing our yearly event - Ace of Blades. This time at its 3rd edition!

As the photo says, a dedicated Facebook event page and more details will be coming soon.

But mark the dates:
23-24 May 2026

And tell your friends.

See you there!

;)